HSBC racked up profits of nearly £14 billion today after a year in which its chief executive was handed a pay package worth more than £8 million.
The pay-out for Stuart Gulliver and the bank's revelation that 239 staff received more than £1 million last year risked stoking anger over bank bonuses.
In addition, HSBC outlined measures that will see it sidestep new EU rules on bank bonuses by offering senior staff fixed pay allowances.
In the case of Mr Gulliver, his base salary will remain at £1.25 million but he will receive a fixed pay allowance of £1.7 million, to be awarded in shares on a quarterly basis.
It will not be tied directly to performance and so would not count as a bonus under new European rules preventing bankers from being paid bonuses worth more than two times their salary.
The controversial new rules from Brussels came into effect in January, meaning that 2013 was the last year in which big bonuses could be paid.
Mr Gulliver's previous pay scheme offered an annual bonus worth up to three times his salary, plus a longer-term share award that pays out as much as six times salary.
Shares in HSBC slumped by more than 4% in early trading after its profits of £13.6 billion rose 9% on a year ago but came in below City expectations.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article